Biggest shopping day flops

It was predicted to be the busiest day in shopping history, with credit-card companies claiming spending on Saturday would hit a record £2.5bn.

But shoppers seem to have had other ideas.

Despite confident forecasts, shopping centres and High Streets around Britain reported fewer customers than expected, dashing hopes of a final pre-Christmas profits boost.

Even Bluewater, Europe's biggest shopping mall, was relatively quiet. Sometimes cars queue along the M25 to get into the centre near Dartford in Kent. But on Saturday the car park was only three-quarters full.

People were getting their hands on money, though. Between 10am and 3pm, an estimated £500m was withdrawn from cash dispensers, said credit-card giant Barclaycard.

Some must have wanted the cash in reserve for the holidays, but others, particularly men buying at the last minute, were keeping some shops happy. Having left it too late to buy on the internet, many people found the High Street an attractive destination.

And a Selfridges spokesman said: 'On Friday in our Oxford Street store we had 90,000 customers, three times what we get on a normal day, and Saturday has been even busier.

'The busiest departments are accessories such as women's handbags and men's briefcases, and jewellery. The lingerie department is absolutely full of men - it's the busiest we've ever seen it.

'Last Christmas was very good for us but this week has been ever better - in Manchester and Birmingham as well as London.'

She said the store had sold out of luxury gifts such as a £5,000 gold chocolate fountain, and had sold thousands of £19 packs of a liquid which turns bathwater golden. John Lewis said sales in its stores around the country were 12 per cent up on last year.

But at Bluewater, there was little sign of the hoped-for invasion. Staff said many people had done their present-buying last week to avoid the expected last-minute mayhem.

'It has been a busy day with around 75,000 shoppers but there have been fewer women,' said a spokesman. 'It has not been our best Christmas Saturday, but it's not the worst either.'

A Bluewater spokeswoman added that Wednesday would be much busier when 175,000 shoppers were expected at the sales. 'Meanwhile, there are so many men looking a bit panicked or stressed that it's hilarious. Previously there were a lot of women but now we have all these men.'

One of them, David Holten, 33, from Sevenoaks, said he was relieved to find the centre so quiet. 'I was expecting hordes of people but I'm pleasantly surprised,' he said. Mohammed Dajani, manager of the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield, said: 'It's been comfortably busy but we haven't had to use the overspill carpark.'

And at Brent Cross in North-West London, sales yesterday morning were said to be 'quite slow' as families concentrated on stocking up on food instead of buying presents. The conflicting picture was mirrored in other figures, with Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Sainsbury's expected to report bumper Christmas sales, but HMV warning of disappointing profits for the year as a result of low demand for CDs and DVDs.